1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic information carrier comprising a substrate or base strip and a layer of magnetizable deposited on the substrate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known magnetic carriers of this type are produced principally in the form of tapes, cards and strips. The invention further relates to apparatus for writing on and/or reading from the information carrier and to cartridges for the information carrier.
In magnetic tapes the substrate is generally constituted by a very thin strip of plastic material (having a thickness of a few hundredths of a millimeter) and on one face of which there is deposited a magnetizable coating or layer of iron oxide and other magnetizable substances. These tapes are normally very long and for storage they are wound in concentric turns around a rigid take-up core or are packed in random fashion in suitable containers or cartridges. These tapes, by very reason of the small dimensions of their cross-section, are very flexible and are fed solely by being drawn along in front of the writing and/or reading transducer. In the case where the tape must be fed in both directions, the feed elements are therefore disposed in pairs at the sides of the transducer(s), thus rendering the writing and/or reading apparatus complex and costly.
In magnetic cards and strips, on the other hand, the base layer is stiff and its thickness is a few tenths of a millimeter. These cards or strips are normally flat and, because of their stiffness and owing to the need for them to be easily handled, have rather restricted length. Therefore, these latter magnetic carriers, although they can be fed both by pulling and by pushing and thus by using very simple apparatus, do not permit a high level of data storage otherwise than by increasing the number of recording tracks, to the detrimental increase, however, of the breadth of the carrier.